Dereliction of duty in American law


Dereliction of duty is a specific offense under United States Code Title 10, Section 892, Article 92 and applies to all branches of the US military. A service member who is derelict has willfully refused to perform their duties or has incapacitated themselves in such a way that they cannot perform their duties. Such incapacitation includes the offender falling asleep while on duty requiring wakefulness, them getting drunk or otherwise intoxicated and consequently being unable to perform their duties, shooting themselves and thus being unable to perform any duty, or his vacating their post contrary to regulations.

Details

In the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice, dereliction of duty is addressed within the regulations governing the failure to obey an order or regulation.
Punishment can include sanctions up to and including the death penalty. Outside of wartime, the maximum punishment allowed is a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 1 year.

Proving dereliction

In order to prosecute a service member under Article 92, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the service member knew their duties and that they were either, through neglect or culpable inefficiency, derelict in the performance of those duties.
A duty is imposed in any one of the following ways:
That the service member possessed actual knowledge of his duties may be proved via:
  • regulations,
  • training / operating manuals,
  • academic literature,
  • testimony of service members who held similar positions,
  • customs of the service

Sentinel / lookout

UCMJ Article 113 includes components of behavior that are, in themselves, examples of dereliction of duty:
  1. Drunk while on post
  2. Sleeping while on post
  3. Leaving one's post without being properly relieved

Examples: non-judicial punishment

Failure to follow instructions and directives

Both a Staff Sergeant and an Airman First Class stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base had their pay reduced by $300 and $200 pay per month, respectively, for two months, when their actions resulted in a delayed launch and subsequent aircraft shutdown. They were found guilty of failing to follow Air Force Instruction 21-101, Air Force Policy Directive 31-3, and Technical Order 00-20-1. They were also given 14 days extra duty and had a reprimand inserted into their files.

Misuse of government property

An Airman First Class stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base was reduced to Airman when she received non-judicial punishment for dereliction of duty. She was found to have charged over $700 on her Travel Card for personal uses.

Example: court-martial

''United States v. Allen Lawson'' 33 M.J. 946

In August 1988, Marine Lance Corporal Jason Rother died on a desert exercise at Twentynine Palms, California. First Lieutenant Allen Lawson was charged and convicted of dereliction of duty for disobeying orders and for failing to post two subordinates as a pair.